Access-restricted-item

true

Acknowledgment

Source material provided by OC Public Libraries. Managed by California Revealed.

Addeddate

2020-03-03 19:47:47

Call number

OCDS SMYB 02

Color

Color

Date-published

2018-12-20

Editor

Vu, Viet

Genre

Oral histories

Identifier

corcl_000110

Interviewee

Smythe, Vernon

Interviewer

Serranilla, Danilo

Location

Japan;Seal Beach (Calif.)
1940/1949

Projectidentifier

caps00016313

Scanner

Internet Archive Python library 1.8.4

Sound

Sound

Source

mp4: 1 file

Title-collection-guide

OC Stories
http://ocstories.org

Title-series

OC Stories

Transcript

My name is Bud Smythe I was a bodyguard to General MacArthur and I've written a book which is in the library system kinda telling kinda my life story up until the time I got out of the Army.Text: On JapanThe way we were all felt about Japan we were led to be believe that they were a fanatic charitable people. Later in life I realized that is necessary in order to get fighting people to fight. You can't fight your best friend. Up until the time I arrived in Japan I had a very low opinion of Japanese. Once I arrived in Japan I found they were an entirely different kind of people. Text: On arriving in JapanI joined the Army and went directly to North Carolina. I was destined for the Paratroopers. I had signed up for the Paratroopers. Went thru Basic Training in North Carolina to go into the Airborne Division. But they sent me directly to Japan. The war was officially declared over when I was on a troop ship on the ocean. So, actually I'm a veteran of World War II, a combat veteran of World War II, but I never saw combat. Went directly to Japan in the first wave of occupation. I was selected for special duty in Tokyo. I had no idea what the job was but I qualified for the various requirements and when I arrived in Tokyo I discovered that I was going to be a bodyguard to General MacArthur, which was really exciting.Text: On Post War JapanWhen I arrived in Japan the war had just ended. I honestly believed that, for instance to go to town from the base that we were at it was a long walk. I honestly believed that a Japanese guy would run out from behind a bush with a knife. In actual fact there was absolutely no aggression on either side. The Emperor had told the Japanese the war is over, that's it, and the Japanese people obeyed that. There was no guerilla warfare so to speak. General MacArthur also issued orders that anyone that abused the Japanese would go to prison. So, if you punched a Japanese you went to Leavenworth for 20 years. So, it was pretty severe. So, both sides were towing the mark so to speak. But the more I got to know the Japanese, we had Japanese servants in the barracks, they cleaned the barracks, they did a lot of other stuff, they were really good people. And, one incident, I was at a camp, it was called Camp Shomofan [?], and it had been a Japanese military training camp, with barracks and marching fields and all the rest of it. We walked into town, into Sendai and it was quite a walk, and one night one of the guys came back all beat up. Not beat up badly, but surface bruises. He was asked "What happened to you?". He said I was walking along and this kid come out of the bushes and said "Gimme some money Joe". I told him "Get lost", and he asked me a second time, and I said "Get outta here", and about 20 kids ran outta the bushes with sticks and started beating on the guy. In Japan at that time, they had been bombed heavily. There were a lot of our friends and these kids had banded together and they came out of the bushes and we all got smart enough to know that when we leave Sendai to walk back after dark and you divide your money into two packets. One you were willing to give away and the other one you would keep for yourself. So you would be walking along and a kid would come out of the bushes and say "Gimme money Joe", a little kid, maybe 10 or 12 years old, and you'd say "Come on get outta here", they'd say it a second time, "Gimme money Joe", you'd say, "Ok but I don't have very much" and you would reach in and you'd give them the money, they'd take it and disappear in the bushes. It was almost like a toll road. At the same time, we knew we would help these kids. So, there was that.Also, when I really got to know the Japanese people I learned to speak Japanese. American soldiers who were, and this is universal, whether they were in Europe, or anywhere in the world, American soldiers are inherently kind. I had one guy working for me and I didn't realize he did this until he was killed accidentally while I was on leave. But, he would go to the PX and buy two big bags of groceries, he would get on a trolley, they had trolley cars all over Tokyo, he'd get off a trolley, he didn't care where, and walk down the street, he would see a woman, and give her one of the bags of groceries, meet another one, give her the second one, get on the trolley, and come home. You know, the American soldiers visited the orphanages, gave up their candy ration. American Soldiers do this everywhere. Charity all over the world, Europe, wherever they are. So, we got to know the Japanese really well.

Values

Note:
Orange County resident, Bud Smythe, recalls his experiences as a soldier during America's post.World War II occupation of Japan.

Recorded for OC Stories; Los Alamitos-Rossmoor Library, Seal Beach, California

Transcript:
My name is Bud Smythe I was a bodyguard to General MacArthur and I've written a book which is in the library system kinda telling kinda my life story up until the time I got out of the Army.Text: On JapanThe way we were all felt about Japan we were led to be believe that they were a fanatic charitable people. Later in life I realized that is necessary in order to get fighting people to fight. You can't fight your best friend. Up until the time I arrived in Japan I had a very low opinion of Japanese. Once I arrived in Japan I found they were an entirely different kind of people. Text: On arriving in JapanI joined the Army and went directly to North Carolina. I was destined for the Paratroopers. I had signed up for the Paratroopers. Went thru Basic Training in North Carolina to go into the Airborne Division. But they sent me directly to Japan. The war was officially declared over when I was on a troop ship on the ocean. So, actually I'm a veteran of World War II, a combat veteran of World War II, but I never saw combat. Went directly to Japan in the first wave of occupation. I was selected for special duty in Tokyo. I had no idea what the job was but I qualified for the various requirements and when I arrived in Tokyo I discovered that I was going to be a bodyguard to General MacArthur, which was really exciting.Text: On Post War JapanWhen I arrived in Japan the war had just ended. I honestly believed that, for instance to go to town from the base that we were at it was a long walk. I honestly believed that a Japanese guy would run out from behind a bush with a knife. In actual fact there was absolutely no aggression on either side. The Emperor had told the Japanese the war is over, that's it, and the Japanese people obeyed that. There was no guerilla warfare so to speak. General MacArthur also issued orders that anyone that abused the Japanese would go to prison. So, if you punched a Japanese you went to Leavenworth for 20 years. So, it was pretty severe. So, both sides were towing the mark so to speak. But the more I got to know the Japanese, we had Japanese servants in the barracks, they cleaned the barracks, they did a lot of other stuff, they were really good people. And, one incident, I was at a camp, it was called Camp Shomofan [?], and it had been a Japanese military training camp, with barracks and marching fields and all the rest of it. We walked into town, into Sendai and it was quite a walk, and one night one of the guys came back all beat up. Not beat up badly, but surface bruises. He was asked "What happened to you?". He said I was walking along and this kid come out of the bushes and said "Gimme some money Joe". I told him "Get lost", and he asked me a second time, and I said "Get outta here", and about 20 kids ran outta the bushes with sticks and started beating on the guy. In Japan at that time, they had been bombed heavily. There were a lot of our friends and these kids had banded together and they came out of the bushes and we all got smart enough to know that when we leave Sendai to walk back after dark and you divide your money into two packets. One you were willing to give away and the other one you would keep for yourself. So you would be walking along and a kid would come out of the bushes and say "Gimme money Joe", a little kid, maybe 10 or 12 years old, and you'd say "Come on get outta here", they'd say it a second time, "Gimme money Joe", you'd say, "Ok but I don't have very much" and you would reach in and you'd give them the money, they'd take it and disappear in the bushes. It was almost like a toll road. At the same time, we knew we would help these kids. So, there was that.Also, when I really got to know the Japanese people I learned to speak Japanese. American soldiers who were, and this is universal, whether they were in Europe, or anywhere in the world, American soldiers are inherently kind. I had one guy working for me and I didn't realize he did this until he was killed accidentally while I was on leave. But, he would go to the PX and buy two big bags of groceries, he would get on a trolley, they had trolley cars all over Tokyo, he'd get off a trolley, he didn't care where, and walk down the street, he would see a woman, and give her one of the bags of groceries, meet another one, give her the second one, get on the trolley, and come home. You know, the American soldiers visited the orphanages, gave up their candy ration. American Soldiers do this everywhere. Charity all over the world, Europe, wherever they are. So, we got to know the Japanese really well.


For additional information see California Revealed.

Year

2018

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